Leverage your intuition on the job

Your gut tells you to wait a day before sending an angry e-mail or to stay away from the rumor mill. That’s your intuitive intelligence, says best-selling author and UCLA psychiatrist Judith Orloff.

By checking in with your intuitive coach, she says in her book Second Sight, you end up making better on-the-job decisions and navigating office politics masterfully.

Unfortunately, many of us don’t know how to consult our inner coach. Four tips:

1. Obey body signals. Perhaps you feel a skip in your step whenever you’re asked to be the scribe at the regular department meeting. Listen to those subtle urges and hints, Orloff says. You may find out that you have a sought-after talent for writing.

Tip: Keep a journal and pen by your bed. Write a request on a piece of paper, such as, “What’s the best way for me to get the promotion?” and put it next to your bed.

In the morning, in a state between sleep and waking, try to remember your dream. Open your eyes and write down everything you can remember.

“If you do this several days in a row,” she says, “a surprising answer to your question will likely appear.”

3. Pay attention to seeming coincidences. For example, you’ve been thinking about changing jobs when you bump into a long-lost friend who tells you about a dream job that’s opening up.

“Such synchronous events are signals that you are in the right place at the right time, or that you need to stop and pay close attention to what’s in front of you,” Orloff says.

4. Tune in to your intuitive empathy. This is when you “pick up a vibe” from another person. “This innate sense that we all have can be fine-tuned by becoming aware of it,” she says. “It will alert you to danger, such as a bully boss who has decided to scapegoat you.”

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